“I still can’t believe you did that,” Seulgi said flatly, not even looking up from the espresso machine.

“What? I wrote it under the sleeve. Chances are she won’t even notice,” Wendy muttered. Her cavalier attitude had waned considerably and embarrassment was finally settling in. “Large cappuccino?” she interrupted herself to shout out the next drink to the cafe. A surly older man in a blazer picked it up without a word and left. “Besides, she clearly has good taste,” Wendy continued, referring to the girl’s simple order: a small hot tea.

“You’re just lucky the boss is away,” Seulgi continued to scold, rolling her eyes. “Could you get more heavy cream from the back?”

“Aw, it’s almost like you’re jealous that I thought of it before you did,” Wendy teased, her sunny disposition shining through her moment of self-doubt. She placed a hand on Seulgi’s back as she passed behind, letting her know where she was. Despite being new, Wendy picked up on these unspoken tricks quickly, which was good in this kind of business. It was sink or swim for these new baristas, especially while their boss was on his extended leave. Seulgi and the other floor managers were too busy to make sure everyone stayed afloat.

And having a barista go AWOL and write a phone number on a customer's cup was one of the many small acts of insubordination that were beginning to pile up. Seulgi didn’t even spare a glance at the cheeky girl as she left - too many drinks on the bar waiting to be made - though she did manage to mutter an "I'm not jealous." The customer had been quite pretty. Like, pretty enough for her to forget whether or not she had put vanilla in that caramel macchiato. Pretty enough for her to almost make that Americano into a latte. Pretty enough for her to have tricked Wendy into handing off the drink while she made some excuse about needing to change out a syrup pump.

She tried to keep her stern expression as the newer barista returned with the heavy cream carton, but it was hard to hide a blush with her hair tied back. She had never been very good at concealing her emotions. “Thanks. Can you make me more whipped cream?” Wendy nodded obediently, giving no further comment on their previous exchange, and began mixing the ingredients.

Seulgi groaned internally at the amount of drinks still in line. She glanced back at the registers, all three occupied by her coworkers furiously writing more and more cups and stacking them behind the others.

“You just about done back there?” Seulgi called behind where she spied Wendy still struggling with a CO2 canister. Sink or swim, indeed, though Seulgi felt like she was starting to drown in orders.

“Just a sec-” Wendy called back, and then there was the tell-tale fsshhhhh and shriek letting the whole store know that Wendy had just gotten half-charged whipping cream all over herself.

And the back counter.

And the wall.

And Seulgi.

“Wendy!”

“I’m sorry! Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Wendy spun around and grabbed some paper towels from the sink and began hastily wiping Seulgi off.

“Whoa, watch the hands! Just clean yourself off and then come cover for me,” Seulgi said, laughing. Just one normal day. That's all Seulgi wanted. Just one normal day without some small catastrophe happening. She sighed as she felt the back of her shirt beginning to stick to her skin. And why did it always have to be during the rush?

+++

Unfortunately, the girl whose cup Wendy wrote the number on did notice. Or rather, her friend noticed.

“Irene." She pointed at the drink in her hand. “What’s that?” she asked with a strange smile that was a mix of amusement and surprise. She held the cafe door open for Irene and the smaller girl easily passed underneath her outstretched arm.

Irene raised an eyebrow at her as they walked back to the car. “It’s just tea-”

“No, that.”  

Following her friend’s gaze, Irene looked more closely at the cup in her hand. “Oh.” It was very obvious what it was. Irene was speechless.

“I mean I suppose I can’t blame them, but really?” her friend continued with a knowing smile.

"Chorong." Irene just gave her a stern frown.

“Do you remember which barista it was?”

Irene blinked, pausing before she opened the passenger door. She actually had no idea which one it could have been. From the register, to the bar, to the hand-off station, the cup must have changed hands three or four times, especially with how busy it had been.

Chorong was already settling into the driver’s seat, so Irene quickly got in. “Actually... there must have been about five or six of them behind the counter…”

Chorong scoffed. “Well, did any of them catch your eye?”

Irene turned to her with a scandalized expression. “I’m going to be running that store in a couple of weeks and you want to know which one of my future baristas I find cute?” To be perfectly honest, Irene had been paying a lot more attention to the team dynamics and the store’s flow than to any individual barista. She did seem to recall that they had been mostly girls, though...

Chorong gave her an innocent smile and shrugged her shoulders. Irene pinched the bridge of her nose.

“This is a lawsuit waiting to happen, isn’t it?” she groaned as they sped off.

+++

“Seulgi?” A figure stuck his curly-haired head around the stockroom door, looking for the veteran barista.

“I’m back here- Heechul?” she called from the desk, turning to look at him curiously. It wasn’t often they got a visit from another store manager, and when they did it usually wasn’t good news.

Heechul let himself in, looking around to make sure it was just the two of them before shutting the door behind himself. The room became eerily quiet as the noise from the cafe was dulled to a chaotic hum. His somber expression and confidential nature was putting her on edge. “I’m not interrupting your break, am I?” he asked, seeing a half-eaten sandwich on the desk in front of her.

Seulgi shook her head. He actually was interrupting, but whatever it was he wanted to talk about, she’d rather just get it over with. It was disturbing to see the normally cavalier store manager this serious about something.

“I’m glad. So your manager,” Heechul began hesitantly, “well, he’s leaving the store.”

“Kyuhyun?” Seulgi asked, her brows knitting together in shock. It was a silly question - there was only one person he could mean, but the news was so unexpected she couldn’t help but ask. She had been summarily put ‘in charge’ while their manager had gone on a long 'vacation', but there had been no indication that he wouldn’t be coming back...

“Yeah, Kyuhyun." Heechul paused for a moment, then took another breath and continued. "Listen, Seulgi, while he was skiing... he had an accident.” Seulgi listened numbly as Heechul described the incident: the head trauma, the broken arm, the long recovery period, the extended leave of absence.

He paused, watching Seulgi’s unreadable expression. He started to reach out a hand to pat her shoulder, but stopped. “Hey, he’s going to be alright. He was on his way up to a district office position anyway.”

She nodded slowly, then turned her gaze up to him. “So what’s going to happen to us?”

Heechul stuffed his hands in his khaki pockets as he raised his eyes to the harsh florescent lights. They were comforting in their strange way, a glow he had been basking in for many years now, all the way back to when he had begun working for this company as a barista. Back then he and Kyuhyun would have never guessed they'd stick around long enough to become managers of their own stores. “Well actually they already have someone in mind to replace him. She’ll start in a couple weeks.” He knew Seulgi was the rockstar barista of their district, next in line to start training for a store of her own, but company policy dictated that you couldn’t become the manager of a store you had already worked in. Too many conflicts of interest.

“They work quick,” she remarked, still trying to process the sudden change.

“They do."

Seulgi couldn’t keep a feeling of being orphaned from washing over her. All of them at the store had been such a tight-knit group, every since Seulgi had started working there a couple of years ago. They even used to go out together sometimes after work. They were a family. A weird, dysfunctional, family.

“I know you’re probably not supposed to tell me," she said absently, "but do you know what hospital he’s in?”

+++

A week later it was Seulgi’s turn to shut the door behind herself, creating a pregnant silence within the stockroom. The rest of her crew looked over at her expectantly, easily reading her serious expression. She had asked them all to stay after close for her announcement, and those who weren’t working today had come in specially.

“So,” she began awkwardly, “I don’t know how many of you probably already know, but Kyuhyun’s not coming back.”

Chaos.

“What do you mean not coming back?”

“Was he fired?”

“Oh god…”

“Seulgi?”

Apparently none of them had heard yet. Seulgi sighed and hooked her hair behind her ears, a way of composing herself. Everyone fell silent. “He had an accident and he won’t be able to come back to work. Heechul said he’ll probably be promoted to district manager instead after... after he recovers.”

While the promotion was a small consolation, the worried expressions before her didn't abate. Seulgi shook her head.

“I think it’d be nice to get him some flowers and cards from all of us. Heechul told me where he’s recovering, so if a couple of you want to go deliver it with me, we can do that.” They nodded at her.

“Our new manager starts next week,” she continued, already raising a hand in anticipation of their outcries. “Apparently she’s already visited the store and was impressed by us, so hopefully it will be a smooth transition.”

“She?”

“She’s already been here?”

“I hope it wasn’t during the whipped cream fiasco…”

“Excuse you.”

“I wonder what store she’s coming from.”

“Guys, it’s not going to be that bad, really. I know we’re all going to miss Kyuhyun, but this is… just business, you know?” she tried to placate, speaking over the din. “Her name’s Irene.”